2 symphonic poems from Má vlast

Vltava

From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields

There is no greater musical monument to Czechoslavakia than the six symphonic poems that make up Smetana’s Má vlast (My country). Written between 1874 and 1879, the cycle contains four movements devoted to Czech history and legend together with two - Vltava and From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields - inspired by nature and rural life. Vltava, the second in the series, follows the course of the river of that name as it flows from its source in the Sumava Valley, where two brooks join together in a stream, passes through Prague and eventually joins the Elbe.

Strangely enough, although the bubbling material associated with the two tributary springs at the beginning of Vltava came to Smetana on the very spot in Sumava Valley, the main theme of the work, the lovely flowing melody heard first on oboes and violins, is actually Swedish in origin (it has since acquired Czech folk-song status, to the unlikely words “The cat crawls through the hole and the dog through the window”). Drawing on his memories of a boat trip he made on the Vltava some years earlier, Smetana now evokes the sounds of a hunt in horn fanfares, of a country wedding in polka rhythms, of water sprites frolicking on woodwind in the moonlight of high muted strings, and of the turbulence of the St John Rapids on strident brass. As it finally approaches the Elbe, the river passes Vysehrad, the high rock on the outskirts of Prague, which is identified here by the proud theme with which it is associated in the first movement of the Má vlast cycle.

According to the composer, the fourth movement in the cycle, From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields, “is a painting of the feelings that fill one when gazing at the Bohemian landscape.” From the explosively scored opening bars it is clear that those feelings are intense. The excitement is moderated, however, to admit a more lyrical melody on two clarinets and then a lovely episode featuring two oboes and two bassoons depicting, accordng to Smetana, a “naive country girl walking through the fields.” A technically resourceful fugal passage beginning on first violins alone represents the sounds of nature and, when the counterpoint has worked itself out, the spirit of nature is reflected in a comparatively broad melody on clarinets and horns. These materials are later transformed into a lively polka episode which runs into an exuberant closing section that joyfully recalls all the themes heard before, not forgetting the country girl.